Hookup: 15 Admit-Two Passes to Chicago Screening of ‘Happy-Go-Lucky’ With Sally Hawkins

HollywoodChicago.com — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 14:53:25 -0700

CHICAGO – Who says you can’t buy happiness? Amid all the doom and gloom of today’s economy and the stress to elect a new president, we introduce you to a little-known sleeper by the name of “Happy-Go-Lucky”.

From the trailer alone, you’ll see why it could be the one light-hearted movie this fall that’s guaranteed to put a smile on your face. The film festival indie stars new-to-the-scene sensation Sally Hawkins.

In our latest edition of HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: Film, we have 15 admit-two passes to the Chicago screening of “Happy-Go-Lucky,” which stars Sally Hawkins, Eddie Marsan, Alexis Zegerman and Samuel Roukin. The film is directed by Academy Award-nominated director Mike Leigh.

To win your free pass to the advance screening of “Happy-Go-Lucky” in Chicago courtesy of HollywoodChicago.com, all you need to do is be one of the first 15 people to submit a comment in this HollywoodChicago.com Hookup. That’s it!

Only 15 tickets are available because the film is screening in a theater with a small amount of seats. This Hookup will fill up in a matter of hours from publication. The “Happy-Go-Lucky” screening will be held on Oct. 21, 2008 at 7 p.m. near downtown Chicago.

Directions to enter this HollywoodChicago.com Hookup and immediately win can be found beneath the graphic below.

“Happy-Go-Lucky” features Sally Hawkins, Eddie Marsan, Alexis Zegerman and Samuel Roukin.
Image credit: Miramax Films

Here is the “Happy-Go-Lucky” plot description (source):

Poppy (Sally Hawkins) is a life-loving, irrepressibly cheerful, Pollyanna-type primary school teacher who is 30 years old, single and infinitely optimistic and accepting. She lives with her best friend and flatmate, Zoe (Alexis Zegerman), in London.

She is tested by a repressed driving instructor with anger problems (Eddie Marsan) and tests him in turn.

She has exciting flamenco lessons, an encounter with a homeless man, a row with her pregnant sister and a love affair with the social worker guiding one of her students.

To secure your free pass now, make sure you’re logged into your HollywoodChicago.com account. If you don’t yet have one, you can quickly register here. Having an account with a valid e-mail address is required.

Then, simply add a new comment in the form below. In your comment, include an answer to this simple question:

If you were to nominate one person who provides you the most happiness, who would it be?

Like all Hookups here, this HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: Film is simple: The first 15 people to comment below win! We will be in touch with the 15 winners to distribute the passes.

The original winner must be present at this screening. Winning passes are not transferable. “Happy-Go-Lucky,” which is playing in the 2008 Chicago International Film Festival, opens in Chicago on Oct. 24, 2008.

By ADAM FENDELMAN
Editor-in-Chief
HollywoodChicago.com
adam@hollywoodchicago.com

Interview: Joachim Trier’s Debut Explores Young Angst With Exceptional Feeling in ‘Reprise’

HollywoodChicago.com — Tue, 27 May 2008 15:32:03 -0700

CHICAGO – When combined with the responsibilities of making the rent or making your way in the relationship landscape, early adulthood is often more challenging (and in different ways) than adolescence.

Writer and director Joachim Trier’s new Norwegian film “Reprise” explores the lives of two writers in their early 20s – through sanity and insanity – addled with feelings of love so bad it can hurt. HollywoodChicago recently interviewed the filmmaker and learned that his reflections match the philosophical objectives of his passionate and unique film.

Anders Danielsen Lie (left) as Phillip and Viktoria Winge as Kari in “Reprise”.
Photo credit: Nils Vik and Miramax Films

“There is a wonderful energy to that time of life,” Trier told HollywoodChicago.com. “I found that in my own life there was an enthusiasm and fascination to discovers things. At the same time, what I couldn’t return to was the naiveté regarding the romantic notions of love and the future.”

“Reprise” director Joachim Trier.
Photo credit: Nils Vik and Miramax Films

He continued: “These are the notions the characters in the film have to part with. That is really what that stage of life is about in ‘Reprise’. It is certainly different for everyone, but in this film, we found that characters around 23 years old are a great time period of change in people’s lives to portray.”

Phillip (Anders Danielsen Lie) and Erik (Espen Klouman-Hoiner) are best friends and writing buddies. In the beginning of the narrative, they are both poised by the mailbox with thick manuscripts that are about to be sent to a publisher. The narration then imagines a scenario of what happens next.

They both are successful and they both move forward to a second novel in far-off lands. What actually happens is more complicated and testing.

“I always felt that ‘Reprise’ was a film about friendship [rather] than actual writing,” Trier related. “It is more about the dynamics of a shared passion, and in this case, they want to be writers. It is more about their aspirations and ambitions and how that correlates with friendship and growing up and creating an identity. That’s what I was more curious about.”

It is Phillip’s novel that gets published. The subsequent attention takes a toll on both his psyche and friendships.

Anders Danielsen Lie as Phillip (left) and Viktoria Winge as Kari in “Reprise”.
Photo credit: Nils Vik and Miramax Films

He’s also amid a first love. It’s an intense relationship with Kari (Viktoria Winge). When Kari drifts away and the pressure of early fame beats down upon him, he suffers a nervous breakdown that requires institutionalization. His friends (especially Erik) are called upon to rally around him.

“What we did not want to do is romanticize mental illness,” Trier said. “We were interested in it as a metaphor. We wanted all the details to be right. We were very much interested in being close to that person who goes beyond.”

Trier uses flashback and fantasy sequences to develop character. In the early development of Phillip and Erik as writers, they are obsessed with a reclusive character (a J.D. Salinger-type Norwegian writer named Sten Egil Dahl). Trier based this character loosely on a marginal local writer named Tor Ulven.

RELATED IMAGE GALLERY
View our high-resolution “Reprise” image gallery.

RELATED READING
Read more film reviews from critic Patrick McDonald.

“My co-writer and I were certainly big fans of his,” Trier said. “There are many writers, though, like Salinger and the French writer Maurice Blanchot who were also very hard-line, linguistically oriented and reclusive authors. [They had an] incredible ability to play upon absence as the most seductive tool there is.”

In the end, “Reprise” is a story about friendship, but it’s the shy and tentative friendship of early adulthood. It’s also about love, but it’s the damaging and obsessive emotion that is sometimes hard to control. In essence, Trier has created an honest accountability to those going through the time or those who remember it.

“We wanted to portray a state of mind rather than just an observed reality from the outside,” Trier said. “Part of who we are in any given moment is our past, our dreams and our memories. All those things come into any moment.”

Trier concluded: “I do think film can show that without being strangely alienating. ‘Reprise’ seems to be communicating with people, which makes me happy.”

“Reprise” opened in cities including Chicago on May 23, 2008. In Chicago, the film is currently playing at Landmark’s Century Centre Cinema.

By PATRICK McDONALD
Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com
pat@hollywoodchicago.com